Thursday, February 18, 2016

Via Uni-Watch, the Sacramento Kings will close down their current arena by using a retro court for six remaining home games this season. The court will feature powder blue, dark blue, and red, which were the Kings' colors until their switch to black and purple in 1994. Blue and red were also the colors of the Cincinnati Royals and Kansas City Kings, two forerunners of the current franchise.

Tonight on television was the first time I saw Eastern Kentucky's court, which the Colonels have had for two seasons. The topic of huge mid-court logos has been discussed frequently on this blog. However, EKU's court is the first, to my knowledge, to use different shades of shellac to create the mid-court logo.

Finally, we have McGonigle Hall on the Temple University campus in Philadelphia. The Temple men's team used to play in McGonigle until the larger Liacouras Center was constructed. The women currently split their home games between McConigle and Liacouras. Whereas the Liacouras Center switched to a pretty conventional floor design several years ago, McGonigle Hall's floor has two unusual features. One is that the volleyball court has a lighter shade than the rest of the basketball court, indicating that the volleyball court is a permanent presence on the floor. At many schools, only the basketball layout is permanent, with rolls of tape being put down to delineate the volleyball court for home matches. A second notable feature is the Owl imagery in the corners of the court.